Beyond Hearts
by alydhe
Summary: This is just where I park all of drabbles I write on Livejournal. Likely to be updated often. Fourth chapter with three drabbles is up! RikuxSora SPOILERS!
1. Sparring Practice

**Disclaimer:** I know nothing, I claim nothing, I own nothing. 

**Authors Note:** I wrote a series of these KH drabbles Livejournal and debated with myself about posting it here before finally deciding, what the heck. I don't really see an end to this. I love drabbling so it will probably be updated fairly often. I hope you enjoy them.

This story takes place after the second game. Please note that the timeline is likely to jump a lot from chapter to chapter. I post them as I write them. 

+ **Sparring Partners**

Sora stared silently up at the stars from his place against the Paopu tree. He hadn't been able to stand staying at home a moment more.

An hour or so after he and Riku had escaped The Dark he had returned home for the first time in nearly two years. His parents... they could scarcely believe their eyes. They had just clutched him for the longest time and then found excuses to touch him the rest of the evening. They had acted like they expected him to disappear again at any moment. It had been utterly overwhelming.

Sure, it was nice to see them again, he'd been dreaming about it since the whole Kingdom Hearts mess had begun. Once he was actually there though, it felt too weird. He'd dealt with it until they'd all gone to bed. But once there the silence, the absolute stillness, had disturbed him even further. Despite ordering himself to go to sleep and even counting Dalmatians, he hadn't been able to relax. So he'd snuck out, just as he had the night it had all begun, and made his way back to the island. 

The sound of soft footsteps disturbed his thoughts. He turned his head slightly and was greeted to the sight of Riku walking towards him. The taller boy jumped onto his usual seat beside Sora. They were both silent, just watching the twinkling lights above them in that comfortable silence old friends fall into.

After a while Riku gave a soft sigh. "It's like old times, isn't it Sora?"

Sora turned and smiled at his friend, "Yeah, the only thing missing is a midnight sparring match."

Riku smirked down at the shorter teen and held up a hand, he was clutching two beat-up wooden swords. Sora laughed delightedly.

"Where did you find those?"

Riku tossed one to Sora and examined his own. It's edges were dented and nicked from all the practicing he and Sora had used to do.

"I found them in my room earlier. I don't even remember taking them home." He turned and sent Sora a challenging look. "You think you can keep up?" 

"Bring it on."


	2. Forgotten

**Author's Note:** Forgotten and the next story, Darkness, are for **rubyd** because her comment about Sora's parents not remembering him got me writing again. And then while I was thinking about that the little Riku/Sora thing popped up and demanded to be written.  
This takes place before the second game, back on Sora's homeworld.

**Forgotten**

Someone was missing, someone important. It was tearing at her heart but, for the life of her, Miki couldn't remember who.

Solemnly she sat on an empty bed in the vacant third bedroom of their home. Vacant now, but all around her was evidence that it hadn't always been that way. 

A blitzball was sitting under desk littered with half-finished homework, a lone sneaker peeked out from underneath the bed, clothes belonging to a teenage boy filled the closet and drawers. But the most telling rested in her hands. It was a picture. A simple little thing, really. Just a small photograph tucked behind a thin sheet of glass inside a simple wooden frame.

The picture was of five people. She recognized herself and her husband in the back. Her hand was resting on the shoulder of the mayor's daughter, Kairi, and her husband was ruffling the hair their neighbors missing son, Riku.

But her eyes kept returning to the center figure. Her heart kept telling her she knew him but her brain insisted he was a stranger. How could she forget something like this? With her father's eyes staring back at her half shrouded by her husband's wild hair she knew he could only be her child.

What kind of mother forgets her own child?

Miki stood and replaced the picture on the night stand. Slowly, she made her away around the books and clothes that littered the floor until she once more stood in front of the desk.

How many times had she stared at this one sheet of paper? At the two simple words written in the right hand corner of a long forgotten essay.

_Harada Sora_


	3. Darkness

**Disclaimer:** I know nothing, I claim nothing, I own nothing. 

**Authors Note:** Okay, here is the second of the two fics dedicated to **rubyd**. It takes place before the second game when Sora was still in stasis.

+ 

**Darkness**

Silently, Riku walked through the halls of the laboratory, passing the duck and dog without a glance and making his way directly to Sora's chamber. The complex was completely still, no one knew he was here, he didn't want them to. After being defeated by Roxas, Riku had known what he had to do and desperately wished he could speak to Sora. He wished the brunette was able to help him think of another way. Sora had always had a knack for thinking outside the box.

Then again, if Sora were awake he wouldn't have to worry about it.

The door to the chamber slid open with a soft hiss and Riku stepped into the cavernous room. Purposefully, he strode toward the large stasis pod in the middle of the room, stopping only once he'd crossed the floor sensors that triggered the opening of the front half of the pod.

He watched as the petal like doors descended, revealing the sleeping figure inside. He simply stood for a moment, staring at the face of his friend. A friend who'd stuck by him his whole life. A friend who'd walked through the gates of hell to find him, to save him. A friend he had once again failed.

"I'm sorry, Sora." 

There was no response, the boy slept on undisturbed. Riku swallowed thickly and looked away.

"He uses the keyblade. Your keyblade. A weapon so ensconced in the light that it appears in a nearly blinding flash. It shouldn't be possible. A nobody is nothing more than a fragment of the darkest part of a person's soul. A piece not even large enough to feel more than emptiness." 

Riku snorted lightly and tossed the brunette a humorless smile.

"It really figures that even the darkest part of you is still brighter than lightest part in me."

Riku stopped for a moment and covered his face with a hand. Even though he knew the other couldn't hear him he was still hesitant to speak of what he had to do.

"I can't beat him with light, so maybe it's time to try darkness. You'd be horrified, I know, but what else can I do, Sora? It was my betrayal that brought you to this. He's your only chance and I refuse to abandon you a second time."

He took a step back and watched as the doors began to close again. 

"I'll bring you back, Sora. If I have to become darkness itself I swear I won't let you be hurt again. Just hold on a little longer."

His resolve strengthened, Riku strode back out of the room and headed for the exit.

It was time to find Roxas again.


	4. The Lorry, Jealousy, and Cool

**1. The Lorry**

"Where did you get this thing?" Riku stares doubtfully at the rusty old powder blue pickup truck in front of him. He couldn't imagine what had made Sora pick the thing, it had holes in it larger than his fist and is that a rubber band holding on the door handle?

"I saved up all spring to buy it! Isn't she beautiful?" Sora grins proudly as he pats the hood, only to have it groan in anguish under the gentle touches.

"That's not quite the adjective I'd choose." Riku replied sardonically.

Sora frowned and pouted at his lack of enthusiasm. "Oh, come on Riku! She's not that bad! We just need to do a little work, that's all."

The other boy let out disbelieving snort. "We? When did I get roped into this?"

Sora smirked and sashayed over to put his arms around Riku's neck. "If we get it working before summer is over I thought we could go to Winn for a few days. Just you, me, and my uncle's summerhouse on the beach."

Images of the things they could get up to all alone on a private beach were running through Riku's mind. Wet Sora, slick Sora, Sora covered in paopu slices...

Maybe this truck thing wouldn't be so bad after all.

**2. Jealousy**

It was ridiculous. They were friends. The three of them had been through a lot together. They had traveled together, fought together, they had comforted each other when Kairi, Mickey, and himself had been lost. Of course they were going to be affectionate.

But dammit, did they have to hang all over him like that?

**3. Cool**

Sora still found it hilarious that Riku's one weakness was butterscotch ice cream. The older boy was always trying to act so cool and calm but one glimpse of the sweet stuff and his eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas.

Oh sure, he tried to act nonchalant. But since when had Riku ever been able to fool Sora?****


End file.
